Ice rack



Nov. 15, 1938. M. HOKANSON ICE RACK Filed March 5, 1956 INVENTOR.

-in ATTORNEY.

Patented Nov. 15, 1938 UNITED STATES r for. RACK Martin Hokanson, Duluth, 'Minn., assignor to Eidco, Inc., Duluth, Minn., a corporation of Minnesota Application March 5, 1936, Serial No. 68,327 10- Claims. (Cl. 62-46) This invention relates to refrigeratorsfand has special reference to a novel construction of ice rack for such. a

The principal object of the instant invention is to provide a more efiicient and economical refrigerator than heretofore known, and among other objects sought is that of uniformity of temperatures in the food compartment of the refrigerator, through the rapid discharge of the water from the melting of the ice.

Another object is that of providing maximum humidity content of the air in the food compartment. t

Another object is that of providing uniformity of meltage of the refrigerant employed, for example, if the refrigerant is a solid block of ice, or crushed, and applied to the rack in the refrigerant compartment in a certain form, say slightly deeper or thicker in the back than in the front, the increased pressure on the rack at the back of the ice block would cause it to melt that much faster until the pressure were equalized all over the rack, when the ice block would melt uniformly, and as a consequence of which the top surface of the ice block would remain at all times substantially parallel with the rack, which is a great convenience in re-icing the refrigerator.

Another object is to provide means for selective control of the circulation of air through the refrigerator.

Qther objects and advantages of the invention will appear in the following description thereof.

Referring now to theaccompanying drawing,

forming part of this application, and wherein like reference characters indicate like parts:

Figure 1 is a transverse section, from front to back of an ordinary refrigerator, showing the improved rack in elevation and the drip pan in section.

Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmental section on the line 2-2, Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a top plan View of a fragmental portion of the ice rack shown in Figure 1.

45 Applicant has by actual experiment determined to his own satisfaction at least thatthe general efficiency and economy of an ice refrigerator depends not only upon the quantity of ice used in a given length of time but upon the manner in which. such use is accomplished especially in respect to uniformity of temperature in the food compartment relative to like use of the ice employed. That is to say, the horizontal dimensions of the ice block'should'be kept as nearly as possible'the same at all times so that the surface of the rack on which the ice block rests is as completely covered with ice as possible at all times and that it remains so substantially during the entire meltage of the ice block. This is accomplished by causing the ice block to move slightly toward the front of the rack relative to the meltage of the ice block in front so that warm air from the food compartment is prevented from contacting the ice block directly. It is obvious that the warmest air in the refrig erator is in the upper front portion of the food compartment, and when circulating throughout the refrigerator this warm air in its upward course contacts initially the forward end of the ice rack, and, if the ice block did not cover the forward end of the rack, the air would work its Way upwardly about the forward surface of the ice. This being desirable to avoid, it is obvious that the ice block should have a tendency to move forward at all times to seal up the openings in the forward end of the rack and thus prevent circulation of air therethrough.

The air directed rearwardly beneath the rack is rapidly cooled and the tendency to rise up through the rack in the back thereof isthereby eliminated.

In the drawing, I represents the rear wall of the refrigerator, 2 the front division wall intermediate of the door 3 to the refrigerant coinpartment and the door 4 to the food compartment. 5 represents the drip pan support, the pan proper being indicated at 6 and is of corrugated metal, the lower portions of said corrugations terminating at their rearmost lower end in finger like projections indicated at l to carry the drippage as nearly as possible centrally over the vertical portion 8 of the air circulating conduit rearwardly of the back baffle or partition 9 of the food compartment.

The ice rack, which is considered novel and illustrated more in detail in Figure 2 ofthe draw ing, is composed principally of pairs of sheet metal units, made to cooperatively engage each other in the ultimate construction of the rack, each unit being folded to form centrally therein a relatively deep narrow fin-like bafile having slightly spaced parallel walls II the space between said walls being illustrated at l I, and the upper open terminus or slot of said space, longitudinally of the rack being indicated at E2, these baffles preferably having parallel sides the entire depth thereof, they acting as conduits for a portion of the drippage from the refrigerant, and they are progressively deeper toward their rearmost ends. These baflles are open at both ends with the exception of one or more at the extreme sides of the rack which are closed, or pinched together at their foremost ends, this being for the purpose of lessening the possibility of air circulating therethrough and above the rack, as naturally the ice as it melts would have a tendency to reduce somewhat in width during the melting process as well as in fore and aft dimension; the prevention of change in the latter dimension as before stated being cared for by the slight downward inclination of the rack towards the front, so that if any portion of the rack should become uncovered by the melting ice it will be the rear portion thereof due to the forward movement of the ice block. At the rear of the rack there will be the least. tendency of the air to pass upwardly through the rack on account of the air being at this point .at its lowest temperature and tending to continue on its downward course through the refrigerator.

From the slots I2 each unit is flanged outwardly forming substantially flat shelf-like surfaces indicated at l3, and these flanges, in respect to one of the units, are turned upwardly at their edges forming tongue-like members indicated at' I4, while the flanges of the other unit are not only turned upwardly but again upon themselves downwardly and over the tongues I4 of the other member, resulting in a tongue and groove bead indicated at l5, forming, as is obvious, reinforcements for the rack, and ribs upon which the ice, if in block form, first engages, though subsequently will quickly melt downwardly between same and rest upon the surface formed by the flanges 13, thereby providing means to prevent any otherwise possible side movement of the ice block. Obviously the units as above described are alternately arranged across the entire rack.

At the ends of the rack thus formed the shelf like flanges l3 extend beyond that portion which forms the bead I5, and upon these extensions are fixed any suitable form of supporting bar or angle member which, as in Figure 3, is illustrated as being a metal strip folded upon itself and made into angle shape with its two slightly spaced edges overlapping and underlapping the projecting portions of the shelf like flanges 13, these folded supporting bars being clearly illustrated at 20.

Through the flanges l3 of the various members or units, except the ones upon the extreme outside of the rack, I provide a series of preferably uniformly sized holes l6, primarily for rapid conduction of the water as the ice melts so as to avoid as much as possible any insulating effect of the water and to quickly carry same away, it being noted that these holes are uniformly varied in their distance apart, the distance between said holes progressively diminishing from the front to the back of the rack, the object of which is to accomplish uniform meltage of the ice block. It is obvious that the same result may possibly be obtained by having the holes the same distance apart, but of progressively increasing diameter or area from the front to the back of the rack. This is the same object sought by the deepeningof the baffles I0 towards the rear of the rack, for, if such provision were not made, the ice block would melt very much more rapidly where the warmer air engages them as well as the rack.

It is quite obvious that soon after the ice engages the upper surface of the flanges l3 it will melt about the holes l6 .and form small icicles protruding through same, thus augmenting the meltage as well as freeing the ice from water, but

the slots are so narrow that the ice will not melt down into them, at least to any extent.

At I! is illustrated a flat sheet metal damper slidably installed beneath the forward face of the drip pan support or wall, there being stepped cleats illustrated at l8 at either end thereof, and a finger knob adjacent either end so that at any time when the door 4 is opened the attendant may slide the damper I! back or forth as desired to increase or decrease the circulation of air through the refrigerator. This is deemed very desirable at certain times, or to accommodate the require ments of certain foods in respect to the temperature in the refrigerator.

While not illustrated in this application, it is to be understood that the water conducting fingers 1 on the drip pan do not occur directly beneath the termination of the baffles l0 so that the drippage from these two sources are independent but both centrally of the conduit space 8.

Notwithstanding that I have described the flange-like projections l3 of each unit of which the rack is composed as being flat, it is to be understood that the same may be formed slightly less than at right angles to the fins If] so that the upper surface will incline slightly downwardly towards the slots l2 in the rack; this being for the purpose of biasing the moisture towards the slots above the flanges I3, as well as causing the drops of moisture from the icicles which protrude through the holes IE to be attracted towards the outer surface of the fins Ii), the object being to cause the major portion of the moisture to traverse the fins.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A rack for refrigerators consisting of a plurality of narrow sheet metal strips each having a relatively deep inclined corrugation centrally thereof, for conveying drip water to and discharging it from the back of the rack and open at both ends, the upper edges of said corrugation being bent outwardly at substantially right angles to the sides thereof, forming opposed flanges thereupon, and supporting bars attached transverse the ends of said strips and holding them with the outer edges of the flanges of adjacent strip juxtaposed.

2. The combination with a refrigerator having a refrigerant compartment, a food compartment, and an air circulating cooling and humidifying conduit, of a grate for the refrigerant compartment, said grate being pervious, and inclined slightly towards the front of the refrigerator, a

plurality .of narrow straight sided fin-like conduits extending downwardly from said grate intermediate of and below which the circulating air travels, and within which water is conveyed from the refrigerant.

3. An ice rack for refrigerators the upper surfaceof which comprises alternate parallel ribs and relatively deep narrow inclined conduits, with a rowof holes upon either side of said conduits and between each pair of ribs, further characterized by the distance between said holes progressively decreasing from the front of the rack to the rear thereof.

4. A perforated ice rack for refrigerators characterized by the area of said perforations per unit area of rack increasing progressively towards the back of the rack whereby to accomplish uniform meltage throughout the entire rack engaging area of .the refrigerant.

5. An ice rack for refrigerators comprising a plurality of strips of sheet metal each having a narrow conduit therein, said conduit being much deeper at one end than at the other end with the sides thereof being substantially straight and parallel, and the upper edges of the strips being bent outwardly forming laterally extending flanges, and supporting bars attached transverse the ends of said strips for supporting the rack within a refrigerator.

6. An ice rack for refrigerators comprising a plurality of sheet metal strips, each being folded in a manner to provide walls slightly spaced apart and parallel to each other and progressively increasing in depth from front to the back of the rack for conveying drip water to and discharging it from the back of the rack, the upper edges of said walls being bent outwardly forming laterally extending flanges projecting longitudinally beyond the ends of said walls, and bars attached to said strips transverse the projecting ends of said flanges for supporting the rack within a refrigerator.

7. An ice rack for refrigerators comprising a plurality of sheet metal strips, each being folded in a manner to provide walls slightly spaced apart and parallel to each other, and lateral opposed flanges formed at the upper termini of said walls, the edges of the flanges of adjacent strips being folded to form interlocking upstanding beads.

8. An ice rack for refrigerators comprising a plurality of sheet metal strips, each being bent in a manner to form slightly spaced parallel walls increasing in depth toward one end and forming combined drip gutters or conduits and air cooling surfaces, lateral opposed flanges formed at the upper termini of said walls and projecting longitudinally beyond the ends thereof, and supporting bars attached to said strips transverse the projecting ends of said flanges, said conduits being open at both ends.

9. An ice rack for refrigerators comprising a plurality of pairs of narrow sheet metal strips, each strip being folded in a manner to provide slightly spaced parallel Walls, the upper edges of said walls being bent outwardly at substantially right angles forming opposed flanges thereupon, the edge of one flange in each pair of strips being upwardly turned and the edge of another flange in each pair of strips being upwardly turned and folded over for overlapping engagement with said upwardly turned edge.

10. In refrigerating apparatus using solid refrigerant as the refrigerating medium, a refrigerant compartment, a food compartment, and a metal heat conductor forming the bottom of the refrigerant compartment and composed of spaced substantially parallel united sections the surfaces of which presented for heat absorption to air flowing from the food compartment increase in area from one end of said sections to the other, said increase taking place in the same direction as the flow of air contacting said sections, and the surfaces of said conductor which are presented to the solid refrigerant for heat transfer thereto decrease in area from one end of said sections to the other, said decrease taking place in the direction of air flow.

MARTIN I-IOKANSON.

CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION. Patent No. 2,156,615. November 15, 1958.

MARTIN HOKANSONK.

It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered patent requiring correction as follows: Page 2, sec- 0nd column, lines b0 and hl, claim l, strike out the words "for conveying drip water to and discharging it from the back of the rack"; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the 7 same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 51st day of October, A. D. 1959.

. Henry Van Arsdale,

(Seal) Acting Commissioner of Patents. 

